Thank you Katy Montgomerie 💖

Wise Warrior Princess

Katy has been an absolute light in the darkness of this pandemic of transphobia and covid for me. I found her in the wake of the JK Rowling TERF Wars blog. Katy was doing what I had hoped to be able to do myself by using her critical thinking skills to carefully and informatively respond to JK Rowling’s arguments. She showed where JK had misrepresented the truth or otherwise was making unfounded speculation. She stood in the face of immense public pressure from the huge JK Rowling support base to speak truth to power.

Katy seems to be a woman of unlimited patience as she can be found on Twitter everyday responding to both public conversations and private messages from all sorts of people. She helps trans people and I know personally that she is very prompt and generous with her time. She also engages with others that are actively confrontational to her and the wider trans community. Yet even through this Katy is still trying to reach out in the hopes that she can help more people understand. Trying to help people understand and grow can take a personal toll on someone and Katy has unfortunately experienced this personally in recent weeks. She has come off social media in the wake of recent attacks on trans rights.

She tells us that she loves to argue and that is perhaps true but she can argue about all sorts of things that do not involve people questioning whether she is who she says she is on a daily basis. I see her choice to push trans awareness as a clear service to the trans community, especially in the UK. She is not really gaining personally from doing this work and in fact her life would likely be much much easier if she were keeping herself out of the fracas. It is the rest of us that really gain from her work. With her mind she can excel in arenas completely outside trans issues, and indeed she does. She is in a metal band and has been developing a good standing in the online atheist community thanks to her astute mind.

Her service is unfortunately horribly needed right now though as we are in the throws of a full on moral panic about trans people in the UK. More than ever wise voices like Katy’s are needed.

As a trans woman I personally find inspiration in Katy’s openness in the face of constant stigmatisation thrown the way of trans women. She refuses to shave of the edges of her full humanity in order to avoid being marginalised by the many that consider being trans to be a mental dysfunction. A nonsense example has been pressure from transphobes for her to stop referring to people as ‘mate’ because they think it’s a manly turn of phrase…So you can see the ridiculous scrutiny you are under when you speak up as a trans woman. It’s truly out of control. I appreciate that she is staying true to her regional and personal lingual choices. Also importantly being a role model showing that stereotypes of language for men and women harm us all. Yes trans people are put under much greater scrutiny but do we really think it is beneficial to police the word mate by gender?

That was a tiny example but the truth is as an openly trans woman every aspect of how Katy expresses herself is scrutinised. By those accusing her of perversion but also equally by perverts ceaselessly sending her sexual messages and photos (eg dick pics). Needless to say it’s a very hostile world online for an openly trans woman and so by just speaking up Katy shows remarkable courage.

By this courage she is giving the gift of allowing other trans feminine people, at all stages of their transition, someone to see themselves in. Someone proud of who they are, because they are absolutely fabulous.

In a recent video of hers Katy talks about needing to see relatable and empowered trans women in media before she was able to come to terms with being trans herself. This is because she, as we all were, was trained to see trans people, especially women, as the lowest of the low. Katy found on Youtube that real trans women were nothing like the media representation she had learnt and that allowed her to come out and transition.

As an aside it was also Youtube that ultimately got me to come to terms too.

Now Katy is that relatable and empowered trans women for so many more people. She is paying back that support she received 3x 4x 10x over to us all.

So thank you so much Katy, thank you for giving so much back. I and many others appreciate what you have done and are doing so much! It’s women like you that are changing the world to be better for all of us. You have given hope when it was needed most. You are a sparkling light in the darkness.

Sending some love in this dark time, please take all the time you need for self care.

You can follow Katy Mongomerie’s Twitter here: https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie

Katy Mongomerie’s Youtube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3CVggxIzAo7xxq5oeQ4vZg

Katy Mongomerie’s Medium is here: https://katymontgomerie.medium.com/

If you are ever want context for trans issues I really encourage you to look to her as a first port of call.